5 Centimers Per Second short stories
by Lilyrosepetal
Summary: These are things that happened in between Ari first meeting Tohno and Ari moving.
1. Chapter 1

When Tohno and I were kids we used to spend hours in the library with each other. Sometimes we would read our own books, other times we would read together. We read 5 Centimeters per Second together once. We would sometimes read in the library while other times we would check out the books and take them to the cherry tree to read. Tohno would help me get into the cherry tree and we would sit in the tree and read. Other days we would lean up against the trunk of the tree and read. I read so many books with Tohno. Tohno would recommend books for me to read like Prince Caspian. Soon I had read the entire Narnia series in less than a month. I would recommend books for Tohno too such as a wizard of Eathsea. Whatever book I saw Tohno reading that day, I would take a mental note of it so that I could go back to the library and read it too.

On our way to school and on our way home we would always stop at the cherry tree. Sometimes I would dance in the falling blossoms. Other times we would take shelter under it from the rain. I picked up a pedal from the ground every day so that I could put it in my flower book. I was collecting flowers from the whole walk home. One day Tohno stopped at the cherry tree and picked me the most beautiful cherry blossom that was just in bloom for me to put in my book. But that one I didn't put in my book. I couldn't bring myself to part with it. So I put it in a vase in my room and I looked at it every day. When it died I was so sad. I mean I knew that flowers died eventually, but this flower was different, this flower was special to me. So special that I cried. I still love cherry blossoms to this day because of Tohno.

My mother would never allow me to have any pets. But I loved Mustache and Mimi. I loved seeing them every day on our way to school and on our way home from school with Tohno. I would bring them milk, or a bit of my tuna sandwich from that day at school for them to eat. Tohno and I would stop and cuddle with them sometimes. One day Mustache followed me home. I got in so much trouble, but I was able to bring Mustache back to Mimi. Every day after that Tohno and I would make sure that there was no one but us walking home.


	2. Chapter 2

One year Tohno and I joined chorus together. Tohno could not sing very well, but he joined it so that he could be with me. We sang a lot of songs about the sun in chorus but really Tohno was my sun. Tohno always expected me to laugh at him at the end of the song, but I only laughed once. That was when the teacher asked him if he'd like to sing a solo for a performance. We would go to a playground on our way home and we would swing together. I would sing, but Tohno wouldn't. But that was ok with me. Just him being there was enough for me.

I couldn't do as well in PE class as Tohno could, even though Tohno had asthma. Tohno still ran faster than me. The only way that I could keep up in PE class was when he would take my hand and pull me along with him. Even then I could only keep up for a quarter of a mile. But I didn't mind. I was just happy holding Tohno's hand. He would always push himself too hard so I had to hold him back and make him walk a lap with me after a mile of running or so. Yet again I'd do this by taking his hand in mine. This made PE fun for me.

Another year the club we chose to join was the games club. We would play each other at Japanese chess. Sometimes he would win and sometimes I would win. It was fun playing with Tohno. And I knew other types of chess games so I taught them to him. We played those games too. It was a lot of fun.

I got teased a lot from the other girls in my class and in the school. They would call Tohno my "dear husband" and call us "the perfect couple." Every day I had at least one person ask me when we were going to have the wedding. They were also always teasing me about "making out" with him when I had never even had my first kiss yet. Once a week our classmates would cover the board with our names together. Tohno would simply come along and wipe it off with his sleeve. Many times he found me crying, and he would take my hand and take me into another room and make me laugh so that I would stop crying.

But the last day that I was at school, Tohno got down on one knee with a quarter machine ring in his hand and asked if I wanted to marry him before I left. I said yes of course. And we had a little wedding ceremony at recess together. The entire time we were both blushing like crazy. Afterwards we couldn't stop giggling.

The first time Tohno kissed me was after chorus club after he walked me home. After he kissed me we were both blushing. He told me, "There's something I want you to know. Akari, I always loved you, since we met in the library."

While walking home we would watch airplanes in the sky making trails in the sky. I would trace the lines in the sky with my hand. We would watch it fly until it was out of sight. We would also look for rockets in the sky. That is why airplanes and rockets will always remind me of Tohno, because Tohno wanted to become an astronaut.

By the time I was seventeen I worked at a zoo. I had always wanted to be a zookeeper as a child. I loved working in the gift shop. I would shop there at Christmas for my family and friends. During my breaks I would walk around and see the animals. It was like they were all my pets. I knew them all very intimately. At that time I had lost track of Tohno. We had stopped sending letters. But I was working up the courage to send him a ticket to come to my zoo and see me.


	3. Chapter 3

Every holiday since we were kids we would give each other cards. It would be New Year's soon, and I wanted to build up the courage to send him a new year's card. I felt like crying that we had been so far apart for so long. I began to wonder if our love was going to disappear like the Neanderthals. I knew so few people who still were in contact with people they knew in elementary school. I only knew one couple who have been together since then. I envied them. I was so lonely without Takaki, like an animal that was going extinct. I missed work and school the next day because I was so depressed.

The next day I missed school because I had a fever. I got fevers really easily. I thought about Takaki. I wonder how his asthma is doing, if it's gotten any better. He used to miss a lot of days in elementary school because of his asthma attacks. Exams were the next day, so I spent the day in bed studying anyways. I could easily get into the local junior college, but I wanted to go to the college back where I had met Takaki. I wanted to go to that school so I could be closer to him and maybe see him again. It was a long shot, but I was willing to take it.

I still struggled in math. I was never very good at it. It's what I had to study the most the entire year of school. Every time I would get discouraged I would hear Takaki's voice in my head, "you can pass it, Akari." This gives me more motivation and inspiration than anything else. I would practice doing math problems about our cherry tree. The petals would fall five centimeters per second.

I went back to the cherry tree that week. It was raining. I walked the way to my old house. I stopped in time for a train to cross the tracks, and when the train was gone I could see a young Takaki standing on the other side looking at me. But then I saw someone else. I saw a man about my age standing on the other side of the train tracks. But it couldn't be….. But it was. It was Takaki.

That year we got to see the cherry blossoms together again. We hadn't done that since we had been kids. I got his phone number and I called him that night. "I got into my second choice college," I told him happily, "It's in Iwafung in Tochigi."

"Congratulations," He told me, "I'm going to a west junior college."

When I hung up the phone that night I cried myself to sleep. Yes I had gotten into my second choice college that had a great zoology program, but I didn't get into West Junior college like I had wanted. I was so close. I could have been going to school with Takaki again. I was still going to be so far from Takaki. I had worked so hard to get in, all for nothing. I knew that it wasn't my fault. It wasn't Takaki's fault either. It was no one's fault.

Before I knew it I moved in with my aunt who lives in Katsushika. I commuted to school. But I got to have breakfast with Takaki every day. He was on the sprinting team at his school. I ran as well in my spare time. So we would run together sometimes on weekends. He was also on the soccer team so we played soccer sometimes too. After running we would go back to Takaki's house and watch an episode of Airwave Kids.

Sometimes we studied together too. I studied zoology and he studied astronomy. Soon we were both studying so much for midterms that we lost track of each other again. I began writing letters to him again. It took me a month to write my first letter to him. "I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write. How are you" I wrote.

We continued writing letters to each other until the summer time. I would talk to him about the weather and other small talk conversations. I would talk to him about what buildings I had gone into that week, where I had gone. My air conditioning broke for a month, so I wrote to him about that too sometimes. I worked in a department store while I went to college so I talked about that too. I would tell him about my subway trips too as well. Before I knew it, it had already been half a year since I had seen Takaki. I asked Takaki in a letter if he remembered me. He replied that he still remembers me because of the letters I send every day. That made me glad. I was so happy he still remembered me.

Takaki responded to my letters every day. He would always thank me for my letters. One day it took a whole week for him to reply. He apologized for the reply being so late. He tells me how many times he's read my letters. He reads my letters over and over and I read his over and over again. He would always ask how I am. He usually writes back to me by 9pm or so every night, because school keeps him so busy.

I wrote Takaki back every day. "Thanks for writing me back. It made me glad," I wrote to him. Before I knew it, it was autumn. I took pictures of the foliage and sent it to him because it was so pretty. I sent him pictures of myself sometimes too when I would be wearing a new sweater or something cute. I asked him for a picture of himself too and he sent one the next day.

I began to write to him on the train when I started having early morning practice in the morning. The next chance I got I went to see Takaki. He would stare at other college girls and I began to wonder if he really does care for me or not. I wonder if he thinks of me as just a friend. That other girl is prettier than I am. She's also younger, she looks like a freshmen. That night I cried myself to sleep.


End file.
